Hi! Yes, it's been while, I know. I apologize. I plan on adding to my other stories, too...at least, the ones that require additions. Anyway, more of that later. This is my first time writing MWPP, and I really like it, so I hope you enjoy. Unfortunately it's a WIP but I promise to do my best to update frequently, despite college and work and other annoyances.

"After all this time?"

"Always."

1.

It was these moments Lily almost wished she could freeze and bottle, always able to open and relive at her fancy. Yes, it was always during class, a strange time for such sentiments, but there was a blissful lack of expectations, of worries, no jostling elbows or bawdy jokes from the boys, followed by James' embarrassed and apologetic smile, no giggling, nosy questions about aspects of her boyfriend she'd rather keep to herself. No, in Advanced Potions, there was only Severus and her, working efficiently in the second row, third station, their station since first year. It was one of their many pointless traditions, in a long line of inside jokes, whispered and scribbled during their hour together four times a week. And it pained Lily more than she cared to admit that their time together would soon draw to a close, in just three short months.

"If you daydream any longer this twillroot steam is going to turn all that pretty hair yellow," Severus chastised. Lily jumped and quickly added the proper measurement of dried vole bits, stirring the hissing concoction until it settled into a thin grey liquid.

"Thanks for the warning," Lily returned dryly. Peering closely and wrinkling her nose, she added, "Sev, you may be getting rusty; this looks nothing like it should by this stage."

"Oh ye of little faith. Just watch." Adding a drop of myrtle sap every four clockwise stirs, the potion turned a stunning, aquamarine blue, the desired result a full half hour earlier than anyone else in the class. Snape sat back, folding his arms and smirking, as Lily rolled her eyes.

"Okay, okay, all hail the brilliant Severus, who can do no wrong. If you're not careful you'll injure yourself kissing your own ass."

"Jealousy is not a good look on you, sweetheart."

"We'll see who's jealous when I pull an O on the final."

"Surely you're not proposing a childish competition which will only end in tears? For you, I mean."

"I'm also proposing that you're an arrogant bastard."

"That…I will not contest." At this, Lily glanced at Snape and snorted loudly before bursting into laughter, the bubbly kind that was hard to quell because it wasn't appropriate for the surroundings. As the students around them looked over, annoyed at the interruption, Severus glared back, asking harshly, "What are you looking at? Haven't you ever seen a student who's inhaled too much asphodel?" which made Lily laugh even harder, becoming red faced and wiping her eyes.

"We're not even working with asphodel today…are we?" they heard one student inquire worriedly to their partner, and at that, Lily and Severus' eyes met and they immediately had to cover their faces to keep from laughing out loud. It was that kind of day.

"Well, it's a welcome change to see a smile on your face, Severus!" Professor Slughorn beamed, sidling up to their station. "I've always said, Potions can be quite the pleasurable experience, isn't that right, Miss Evans?"

Lily straightened, still red-faced, and nodded. "Yes, Professor, I agree."

"Absolutely spiffing," Severus added, which set Lily off on another round of giggles.

"I say, what a chipper pair the two of you are this morning! And—let us see here…" Slughorn leaned over to inspect their assignment, stirring it slightly, then sniffing it- "Another flawless potion, I am not surprised! Thirty points to both Slytherin and Gryffindor for another admirable display of teamwork! Excellent, excellent work," he declared, smiling warmly at the two before moving on to look over the other students' work.

"Quite the pleasurable experience, indeed," Severus snorted. "When will you stop toying with the poor man's emotions?"

"Please don't start, I've just had breakfast," Lily groaned. "It's not even funny."

"It certainly isn't. He is a poor man besotted, plagued by a Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name. Have a heart."

Lily regarded Severus, sitting there twirling his quill and smirking, dark eyes glittering with mirth behind strands of dark hair that came loose from his ponytail. Times like this she secretly thought he was rather handsome, perhaps not in the rugged, earthy way James was, but his self-assured and quietly playful air gave him a certain glow that, sadly, only seemed to come to life when she was around. She obviously knew the reason for this, the reason he had stopped speaking to her for a week when she began openly dating James, but it was something they now carefully overstepped and avoided, an accepted understanding of what could never be.

But this, their friendship was enough.

It was almost enough.

"You're disgusting," Lily stated, as Slughorn dismissed class and began collecting half-finished potions from the frazzled students. "Stop taking the piss or I'll tell Dumbledore that it was you who put that Avisien Potion in all those first years' pumpkin juice last weekend."

Severus doled out a sizable sample to submit, snapping the lid shut tight and rolling his eyes. "I don't get my kicks out of watching hundreds of brats suddenly take wing," he shot back. "I'd say there's a better of chance of that being on your boyfriend's list of pranks." He then flinched momentarily, as if realizing what he'd said, and an uncomfortably silent moment passed, in which the smile slowly fell from Lily's face.

"Evanesco," she intoned, clearing away the remaining potion and gathering the materials to put back into the supply closet. She hated when he got like that, all snippy and spiteful. It was as if the minute class ended, they were back to their "rightful" place, on either side of the giant Gryffindor-Slytherin divide. The classroom suddenly became quiet, the last remnants of students' conversations fading away as the door closed.

Snape inwardly groaned, putting away his textbook, notebook, and quill before picking up his bag and following her to the closet. "Lily, wait—"

"Sev, isn't your next class all the way in the East Tower? You're going to be late." Lily closed the doors of the closet and shouldered past him, brushing her hair over to one shoulder before leaning over to collect her things.

Severus hated this feeling, he hated that she was with an arse like James Potter, he hated that he still wasn't over her, he hated that he could only have her for a couple hours a week before their strange connection was severed again. He opened his mouth to snap at her, to apologize, to say…anything, but another voice spoke before he could, one that he'd do almost anything to never hear again.

"Hey there, Snivellus, don't you have somewhere to be? A Slytherin revel, perhaps? Why don't you go compare dark marks with your friends?" James was clearly in his element today, striding in the room proudly, a wide grin stretched across his tanned face.

"Goddammit, James Potter, will you give it a rest?" Lily cried angrily, seemingly on the verge of tears. James looked startled, raising his eyebrows as she stalked over to him.

"Babe, you have to know he's a—"

"I'm a what, Potter?" Severus seethed, his wand under James' chin in a flash. "Go on and say it, because I'm sure you've already been gossiping about me with your pathetic little Gryffindor minions anyway." James immediately pulled out his wand also, training it on his heart.

Lily gasped. "Stop it! Severus, don't—"

"Severus, huh?" James asked Lily mockingly, although still glaring at the slightly shorter boy with pure hatred. "Do you braid each others' hair, too?"

There was a loud bang, and the two boys flew apart, apparently having cast two different curses at the same time. Lily ran over to James, who was struggling to sit up and sporting a torn lower lip, glasses cracked down the middle. He looked up at her and winced in pain as she snatched his glasses off his face, quickly casting a Reparo and tossing them back onto his chest.

"Lily—" he began, nearly letting out a sob as his lip throbbed and bled profusely. He clumsily attempted to heal it for the time being, leaving a scar that Madame Pomfrey would be able to vanish. "I'm—"

But she was already crossing the room to Severus, roughing wiping angry tears from her face. He braced himself on Slughorn's desk as he drew himself up, wobbling, his left eye completely black and swollen. Lifting his bag once more, this time he pushed past her, limping out of the classroom without even looking at her. Turning around to face James, she felt something in her begin to shatter.

"Lily, please," James blurted before she could say anything. He, too, was limping, although not as badly as Severus, and he tried to take her hand. She snatched it away, disgusted.

"I can't even stand to look at you right now," she said quietly, her voice thick with tears, before leaving the classroom and slamming the door.

Love it? Hate it? I won't know if you don't revieeeeew! : )